Too Lazy to Seek the Truth

I’m just going to say it: There are flacks in our industry. Spinsters exist, despite honest practitioners efforts to do the best by our clients and their audiences. But the cause of spin and root of flacks isn’t the industry we’re in — it’s laziness.

Every industry, profession, and job has its fair share of lazy employees. Slacker PR pros are so frequently singled out, because we’re constantly communicating. We don’t sit behind a monitor all day working with data, where the only person to call us out is our boss; we’re out talking to clients and reporters all the time. So when one of us is lazy, it shows. And because we talk to reporters all day, we’re exposed to a group of professionals charged with…reporting. We’re in front of the firing squad.

It’s easier to spin than tell the truth, especially when clients gloss over the facts. It’s easier to accept their claims of best, fastest, newest than research their competitors. And it’s equally easy to pull any reporter name and pitch them when our clients are demanding more and more stories.

But please. Don’t judge our industry by a few flacks. I’m sure you work with some, too.